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Do Kwon, the cryptocurrency founder whose tanking Luna and “stablecoin” TerraUSD currencies ushered in a $300 billion crypto crash, is now sought by Interpol following arrest warrants issued earlier this month.
South Korean authorities issued warrants final week for Kwon and 5 others on September 14, alleging their work on Terraform Labs’ crypto merchandise violated the nation’s buying and selling legal guidelines. All six had been believed to be situated in Singapore on the time. Singapore police consider Kwon is now not there, in keeping with media studies. Interpol issued a “crimson discover” lately, asking legislation enforcement companies around the globe to find and maintain Kwon.
Kwon tweeted three days after the South Korean warrant that he was “not ‘on the run’ or something related” and that he was “in full cooperation and we do not have something to cover.” However he hasn’t tweeted publicly in additional than per week since.
South Korean prosecutors mentioned the following day that Kwon was “clearly on the run” and never cooperating with their investigation. Prosecution sources informed South Korea’s Yonhap Information Company that Kwon’s legal professional informed prosecutors that Do Kwon wouldn’t seem for questioning. Kwon and Terraform Labs are additionally below investigation by the US Securities and Change Fee.
We’re within the strategy of defending ourselves in a number of jurisdictions – we now have held ourselves to an especially excessive bar of integrity, and sit up for clarifying the reality over the following few months
— Do Kwon ? (@stablekwon) September 17, 2022
Do Kwon’s agency Terraform Labs raised greater than $200 million from established funding corporations to construct tasks based mostly on Luna, a cryptocurrency, and TerraUSD, an “algorithmic stablecoin” pegged to the worth of a US greenback. Quite than holding reserves of money, bonds, or different property, TerraUSD mechanically traded Luna to keep up its peg.
Luna shot to a worth of $116 in early 2021. Kwon would ultimately purchase $3.5 billion value of bitcoin for holding within the nonprofit Luna Basis Guard, designed to shore up Luna and TerraUSD in opposition to market volatility.
It did not work. In early Might, Terra’s worth dropped to mere cents throughout a speedy sell-off, whereas Luna crashed from $80 to lower than 2 cents. The Luna Basis Guard bought and distributed almost all of its 80,000 bitcoins, saving simply over 300 to compensate traders. The group denied claims that it bailed out Luna’s largest “whale” traders with the cash, although it by no means supplied proof of this.
The near-total collapse of the Luna/Terra ecosystem, value about $40 billion in early Might 2022, spurred on a wider $300 billion sell-off and divestment from crypto, although it had already been quietly underway.
Kwon grew to become referred to as an boastful, aggressive determine on “crypto Twitter” and in decentralized finance circles. He named his first daughter Luna, after his coin. He regularly mocked and dismissed critics by labeling them “poor,” together with a British economist who questioned the soundness of Terra throughout a sell-off. After the collapse, Kwon publicly made plans to relaunch Terra as Terra 2.0.
Earlier this month, one other Kwon-related crypto coin launched: “JailKwon,” a meme coin that claims it can use proceeds to supply training about crypto security and market evaluation. It rose to an all-time excessive capitalization of greater than $300,000 the day Kwon’s arrest warrant was issued.
